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New frontiers in water pollution control

page 560

New Frontiers in
Water Pollution Control
JAMES M. QUIGLEY, Assistant Secretary
U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
Washington 25, D. C.
The waste conferences at Purdue antedates any Federal water pollution
control by more than two years. The first waste conference was before 1946;
our first Federal act was passed in 1948.
There is something more than idle coincidence in this. Through three
administrations your Federal government has maintained a growing interest
in water pollution control and a growing recognition of its responsibilities in
this field. Before this could take place, however, there had to be a body of
technical knowledge which could certify that there was here a problem of
importance and that action was necessary. The New Frontier's program for
water pollution control rests squarely on the fact that we laymen are beginning to accept as truths what you scientists and technicians have been telling
us all along.
This 17th meeting of your Purdue Conference must differ in many ways
from your meetings back in the 1940's. For one thing I suspect there is a
greater urgency now for you to meet and solve your problems and for another
thing, I suspect you have more problems to solve.
It is anomalous to a layman that the technology of waste disposal has
not kept up — has indeed fallen far behind -- the technologies of new products and new manufacturing processes. It is astonishing that we have been
able to create so many new things without knowing what we can do with these
new products when we are through with them. What is going on in the field
of nuclear energy is a startling and frightening example. It was a Russian
scientist, I believe, who suggested not long ago that one of the ultimate uses
of our new space technology may be catapulting our radioactive wastes into
space. I wonder if eventually we are going to have to put detergents and
pesticides and herbicides up there, too.
Many of these products have been developed since 1946. There is
another change -- in the new climate of public opinion which now surrounds
every one of us who are in any way connected with the problem of water resources and water resource management. What we do is becoming of great
and in some cases very emotional concern to our fellow citizens.
In June, 1960, the Public Health Service initiated a survey of pollution-
caused fish kills. Several days ago we announced the results of our first full
year of reporting, which was carried on as a joint federal-state activity. We
reported that 15 million fish had been identified during the year as victims
of water pollution. Even this figure was an understatement; about one-third
of the reports could only estimate the fish-kills in terms of "many," "several
thousand, " or by weight -- which in one instance totaled 60, 000 lbs.
A total of 444 individual kills were represented in the summary we published last week, many of them attributed to more than one source. A total
- 560 -

New Frontiers in
Water Pollution Control
JAMES M. QUIGLEY, Assistant Secretary
U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
Washington 25, D. C.
The waste conferences at Purdue antedates any Federal water pollution
control by more than two years. The first waste conference was before 1946;
our first Federal act was passed in 1948.
There is something more than idle coincidence in this. Through three
administrations your Federal government has maintained a growing interest
in water pollution control and a growing recognition of its responsibilities in
this field. Before this could take place, however, there had to be a body of
technical knowledge which could certify that there was here a problem of
importance and that action was necessary. The New Frontier's program for
water pollution control rests squarely on the fact that we laymen are beginning to accept as truths what you scientists and technicians have been telling
us all along.
This 17th meeting of your Purdue Conference must differ in many ways
from your meetings back in the 1940's. For one thing I suspect there is a
greater urgency now for you to meet and solve your problems and for another
thing, I suspect you have more problems to solve.
It is anomalous to a layman that the technology of waste disposal has
not kept up — has indeed fallen far behind -- the technologies of new products and new manufacturing processes. It is astonishing that we have been
able to create so many new things without knowing what we can do with these
new products when we are through with them. What is going on in the field
of nuclear energy is a startling and frightening example. It was a Russian
scientist, I believe, who suggested not long ago that one of the ultimate uses
of our new space technology may be catapulting our radioactive wastes into
space. I wonder if eventually we are going to have to put detergents and
pesticides and herbicides up there, too.
Many of these products have been developed since 1946. There is
another change -- in the new climate of public opinion which now surrounds
every one of us who are in any way connected with the problem of water resources and water resource management. What we do is becoming of great
and in some cases very emotional concern to our fellow citizens.
In June, 1960, the Public Health Service initiated a survey of pollution-
caused fish kills. Several days ago we announced the results of our first full
year of reporting, which was carried on as a joint federal-state activity. We
reported that 15 million fish had been identified during the year as victims
of water pollution. Even this figure was an understatement; about one-third
of the reports could only estimate the fish-kills in terms of "many," "several
thousand, " or by weight -- which in one instance totaled 60, 000 lbs.
A total of 444 individual kills were represented in the summary we published last week, many of them attributed to more than one source. A total
- 560 -